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ABSTRACT HOME GARDENSCAPES FOR THE PROMOTION OF ECOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL PLANT DIVERSITY ON SINT EUSTATIUS, DUTCH CARIBBEAN by Briana N. Berkowitz Home gardens are an important topic for geographic research due to their potential to contribute at the intersection between plant diversity conservation and local livelihoods. Home gardens have the potential to be sites of ecological restoration, transforming a small-scale landscape through higher plant richness and density. This study looks at home gardenscapes on St. Eustatius, a small Caribbean island, focusing on all plants growing in a home area. Field research between June and July 2016 aimed to determine how home gardenscapes contribute to botanical measures and cultural perceptions of plant diversity, and how St. Eustatians value the importance of their gardens to their homes and livelihoods. Through a floristic and ethnobotanical survey of plants growing in home areas, I found 277 plant species, indicating high levels of plant diversity, as well as 260 plants with uses. Interviews with home gardeners indicated that home gardening could be difficult due to drought and pests, but also that gardens contributed to their livelihoods, especially through the production of edible plants and for small incomes. Gardening was reported to be a declining activity on St. Eustatius, but this study shows how gardening activities support plant diversity and livelihoods across the island’s highly-modified landscape. HOME GARDENSCAPES FOR THE PROMOTION OF ECOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL PLANT DIVERSITY ON SINT EUSTATIUS, DUTCH CARIBBEAN A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Briana N. Berkowitz Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2017 Advisor: Kimberly E. Medley Reader: Mary Jane Berman Reader: David L. Prytherch This Thesis titled HOME GARDENSCAPES FOR THE PROMOTION OF ECOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL PLANT DIVERSITY ON SINT EUSTATIUS, DUTCH CARIBBEAN by Briana N. Berkowitz has been approved for publication by The College of Arts and Science and Department of Geography ____________________________________________________ Kimberly E. Medley ______________________________________________________ Mary Jane Berman _______________________________________________________ David L. Prytherch Table of Contents List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..v List of Figures………………………………………………………………………...….vi Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………..vii Chapter One: Introduction……………………………………………………………...1 Statement of Purpose and Research Questions…………………………………....4 Chapter Two: Literature Review……………………………………………………….7 Ecological and Cultural Plant Diversity of Biogeographical Landscapes………...7 Gardens as Restoration Ecology…………………………………………………..9 Feminist Participatory Research as Collaborative Learning…………………..…10 Chapter Three: Study Area……………………………………………………………13 Chapter Four: Data and Methods……………………………………………………..17 Garden Measurement and Delineation…………………………………………...18 Floristic Survey…………………………………………………………………..18 Ethnobotanical Survey………………………………………………………...…20 Local Perceptions on Gardenscapes……………………………………………...20 CHAPTER FIVE: RESULTS………………………………………………………….23 Ecological and Cultural Diversity of the Gardenscapes……………………...25 Floristic Diversity of the Gardenscapes………………………………….25 Ethnobotanical Diversity of the Gardenscapes…………………………..28 Ecological Diversity Patterns among Gardenscapes……………………..31 Local Perceptions on the Management and Livelihood Contributions of Gardenscapes…………………………..………………………………………..35 Transformation of the Garden Space…………………………………….35 Maintaining Plant Diversity in Gardenscapes……………………………38 Gardenscape Contributions to Homes and Livelihoods………………….42 Chapter Six: Discussion and Conclusions…………………………………………….46 Gardenscapes for Conserving Biodiversity……………………. ……… ……46 Diverse Gardeners Create Diverse Gardenscapes…………………..………..48 Engaging Communities in Ecological Restoration……………………….......51 References……………………………………………………………………………….54 iii Appendix 1: List of Flora Found in St. Eustatian Gardenscapes ………………...…66 Appendix 2: Research Approval from Miami University’s IRB ……………………80 Appendix 3. Participant Consent Form………………………………………………..81 Appendix 4. Approval for Collection of Plant Samples on St. Eustatius…………….82 Appendix 5: Permit for Import of Plant Materials from St. Eustatius……..……….83 iv List of Tables Table 1. Questions asked in semi-structured interviews…………………………………21 Table 2. Demographics of participants by gardenscape…………………………………24 Table 3. Gardenscape Floristic Survey Results………………………………………….25 Table 4. Plant species by origin status, following Richardson et al. (2000)……………..25 Table 5. Potentially invasive non-native species (sensu van de Berg et al. 2015) found in gardenscapes on St. Eustatius………………………….…………........27 Table 6. Ethnobotanical plant uses mentioned by gardeners on St. Eustatius…………...28 Table 7. Number of plants with uses by plant origin type……………………………….29 Table 8. Number of species, density, and evenness per gardenscape……………………32 v List of Figures Figure 1. A conceptual model for the study that examines gardenscapes as sites for the restoration of ecological and cultural diversity on St. Eustatius………...4 Figure 2. Map of St. Eustatius showing locations of gardenscapes……………………...13 Figure 3. An example of a gardenscape measurement made in Google Earth Pro………18 Figure 4. Plant voucher specimen collected for the Miami University Herbarium……...19 Figure 5. Equipment for drying plant specimens………………………………………...19 Figure 6. Size-class distributions of gardenscapes………………………………………23 Figure 7. Plant species found in gardenscapes with different origin statuses……………26 Figure 8. Examples of plants with several common names……………………………...27 Figure 9. Examples of plants from different use categories……………………………..29 Figure 10. Number of plants with one to multiple uses………………………………….30 Figure 11. The plants with the most recorded uses………………………………………31 Figure 12. Floristic composition (plant origin and growth habit) of gardenscapes by location……………………………………………………………………….33 Figure 13. Ethnobotanical plant uses in gardenscapes by location………………………34 Figure 14. Comparison of gardenscape compositions…………………………………...34 Figure 15. Frequency of species in gardenscapes………………………………………..35 Figure 16. Examples of gardenscape transformation…………………………………….36 Figure 17. Techniques for maintaining established plants……………………………….39 Figure 18. Ways of adding infrastructure to the garden. Raised beds in gardenscape 10 (left) made from oil barrels acquired from NuStar oil terminal. Garden beds lined with cardboard and shaded by palm fronds to keep moisture in and weeds out in gardenscape 15 (right).………………………………..…...40 Figure 19. Ways that gardenscapes contribute to lives and livelihoods. A jar of gooseberry jam made by the gardener from gardenscape 4 (top left), the entrance to the inn ran by the gardener from gardenscape 1 (top right), a community garden initiative where gardenscape 5 is located (bottom right) and plant seedlings from gardenscape 16 that are ready to be sold (bottom left) …………………………………………………………………43 vi Acknowledgements First and foremost I must thank Kim Medley, a truly wonderful advisor, who went above and beyond for me during my time at Miami. I most appreciate the time she spent carefully editing my thesis, her encouragement to realize my full potential as a writer and academic, and the way she has shifted my worldview on the relationships of people, the environment and plants. Her passion for those subjects really helped me find my passion for them, and I am very grateful for all I’ve learned. Thanks as well to my committee members, Mary Jane Berman and David Prytherch, for their help in the thesis process. Many thanks to the Willard Sherman Turrell Herbarium and Michael Vincent for the generous grant to complete my fieldwork, and for the help in identifying my plant specimens. I deeply appreciate my field assistants Hannah Madden and Celford Gibbs, who were instrumental in carrying out this research, and my field participants, who generously took their time to show and tell me about their plants and gardens. I must acknowledge my fellow graduate students, without whom writing this would have been a much less enjoyable process. Finally, thanks to my family and Maurice. vii Chapter One INTRODUCTION The effective conservation of biodiversity gained priority as an environmental objective, following its introduction at the 1986 “National Forum on BioDiversity” (Wilson 1988). Plant diversity in particular presents its own challenges and considerations. Many species are still unrecorded, distribution patterns for many species remain uncertain, and plants are inadequately protected in places where conservation needs are most urgent (Joppa et al. 2013). The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, under the United Nations Environment Program, provides targets to document, conserve, sustainably use, and raise awareness of plant diversity as both a global and local concern (Convention on Biological Diversity n.d.), and for the 21st century, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals identify biodiversity conservation as essential for mitigating future environmental challenges and improving livelihoods. These global strategies focus primarily on reducing deforestation and increasing protected areas (United Nations 2015). In order for the conservation and management of biodiversity on a local level to be effective, however, strategies need to more broadly consider landscape complexity